TOGETHER IN DEATH
by itchyfabric
Summary: ONE-SHOT. How I think the InuYasha series ought to have ended, or at least how Naraku should've died. Naraku/Kikyou.


( I obviously don't own any of the InuYasha characters or the series. This is how I think the final battle with Naraku should've went -- one on one, Naraku and Kikyou. Sorry that it's crappy, too; I wrote this up in half an hour, thanks to an overload of muse, and I'm not sure it worked in my favor. XD )

No detail had been left to chance with this meeting of theirs: he'd set up layers upon layers of barriers just to make sure that it would only be him and Kikyou to do this. In his heart (and yes, he did have one, contrary to popular belief -- it was his one weakness) he knew that today was the day of days: either he would eliminate Kikyou once and for all, or his love for her would overwhelm him and she'd end up slaying him. Who would have thought that it would have come to this, back in the very same field where he had killed her over fifty years ago?

Call it his last attempt to be poetic. After this, with his one weakness removed, he would be free to pursue world conquest as he pleased, and there was neither room nor time for poetry when trying to become the strongest creature on the planet.

He was waiting for her in the middle of the field when she appeared from between the trees, with her bow already in hand. There was nothing but hate glazed over in her eyes, and he did his best to put on his usual countenance of amused apathy -- and it worked. He had his trademark smirk across his mouth, an almost Cheshire cat-like grin that betrayed anything he might have truly been thinking. His own red eyes were gleaming with delight: the joy that he would witness Kikyou take her last breath today. Even if she did kill him, he resolved, he wouldn't go down without taking her with him. Was it not a principle that star-crossed lovers had to die within minutes of one another, or was that another thing he was making up just to make this all look better?

"Naraku." She hissed, and pulled up her bow. The strings whined in protest, and she expertly aimed the tip for his heart. And yet, even though he was simply standing there without any guards, she hesitated. Something wasn't right with this.

As a soft breeze blew through the area, his smirk morphed into a soft smile. He was standing there simply waiting to be executed, and yet there was a smile on his face, the likes of which the world had never seen before. Was he … happy? Content to finally be put out of his misery? Perhaps. Or perhaps …

Though Kikyou wasn't sure what she was doing or what he was up to, this was too perfect of an opportunity for her to simply let it pass by. In a split second, she'd shot the arrow.

Upon contact, he stumbled backwards a few steps. He then fell to his knees, staring down at the wooden object surrounded by a purifying aura that was slowly killing him. _Pathetic, Naraku, _he thought, _you didn't even put up a fight. Do you really … ?_

Against her better judgment, Kikyou went over to kneel beside him as he died. She'd had compassion for the dying Onigumo, and it seemed only right to be beside the man she so loathed as he passed on from this world and onto hell. That, and she was still rather confused about why he'd smiled at her before. "Why were you--!" It was all she could get out before one of his appendages reached out and stabbed her right through the chest. He'd said that he'd take her down with her, didn't he?

As he pulled out, she fell forward into his arms. She was trembling now, angry beyond words that she'd have to die in the arms of the likes of _him_. But he wasn't ready to toss away his bag of surprises just yet.

"You truly are a vile man." She hissed.

His words came very swiftly after. "I couldn't let anyone else have you." Those arms of his wrapped around her, tightly holding her to him. "InuYasha couldn't have you, not again. I've … loved you, Kikyou, and not simply because I was once that lowly bandit you saved: I wanted to expel Onigumo from my body and have you all to myself."

Then, his grip faltered. The arrow's effect was taking over, and he lost enough of his strength to allow for Kikyou to fall out of his arms and land on her side. The grass once again gained a red hue from her blood, but her eyes never once left him. This was simply how Naraku loved: jealously, possessively and obsessively. There had never been another for him; while InuYasha's eye wandered to the miko's reincarnation, his had remained firmly on his ultimate reward. There was no debate as to who truly owned Naraku's heart.

With the priestess' dying breath, she tried to say something to him. Mayhap she would've confessed some feelings for him, too, or simply reiterated her statement of her hate for him. Or maybe she would have gone down a different road entirely -- all the same, however, the world wouldn't know what Kikyou wanted her final words to be, for she passed with nothing but a gasp of a whisper.

That smile returned to his face as he brushed his hand against her forehead. She was asleep now, in the bed that they'd made for each other, and he was to join her shortly. He moved to lie on his side beside her, pulling her now lifeless body closer to his so that he could at long last hold his prize. At long last, he'd won. He'd outlived Kikyou and been the last person she'd spoken, and yet he felt robbed. The Shikon no Tama knew all too well that his one true wish had been for Kikyou's love, but now it was eternally beyond his reach. He'd wanted a life for them where he could wake up to her beautiful face every morning, a life where she only had eyes for him and was willing to give up her duties as a shrine maiden to be his. They'd have had children -- two, he imagined, a boy and a girl -- who would have inherited their father's knack for trouble and their mother's enchanting beauty. The two of them would climb all over their sleeping parents and whine to be played with, and Kikyou would nudge her husband and drowsily remind him that it was his turn to entertain the children.

He'd have grown old and been a happy man, with the only woman that ever really mattered at his side. He would've abandoned all thoughts of world domination if he could simply have her with him, but life had decided to not write a happy ending for these two.

As he felt the last ounces of strength leaving his body, he tried to lean forward. He tried so very, very hard to close the gap, but a sudden pain in his chest stopped him before he could reach his final destination. And as his eyes closed for the last time, he thought to himself _my, Naraku, even in death you can't …_

His chest heaved upwards, and then he exhaled the final bit of his life out from his body.

… _kiss the woman you've always loved._


End file.
